Last night Damages third season premiere averaged 1.428 million and a .3 rating with adults 18-49 in its first airing at 10pm. That's down from last year's second season premiere when it averaged 1.715 million January 7, 2009, but it's up from the finale last spring that averaged 1.048 million viewers.

Last year things quickly dropped from the premiere, often below one million viewers per first airing (it had multiple encores during the week). Can Damages reverse the ratings trend and gain some momentum?

In other scripted drama news, after a week off TNT's Men of a Certain Age averaged 2.346 million viewers and a 0.8 rating with adults 18-49, but apparently the 25-54 is the more important demo for the show, and I haven't seen those numbers yet.